This is your Course Website, which includes to links to all of the resources that you need for our work together.

Each Friday for 2.5 hours we will meet all together on Zoom, we will cover our Class content for the week, 1/2 of the cohort will present their bi-weekly update, and we will have time to discuss and ask questions.
Each week I will also be conducting 1 hour of one-on-one coaching with each team in the “other” half of the cohort.  Coaching sessions will be able to be scheduled M-W from 1pm – 5pm MT.  So there will be a lot of flexibility for you to schedule.  Instructions on how to schedule will follow next week.
COURSE TOOLS
Course Website
This is your course website (https://venturewrench.com/launchcohort2024) for use throughout the course. That will be your link to all of the resources that we will be using. Please bookmark it!
Course Materials
We will be using Thinkific (VentureWrench.thinkific.com) as our Learning Management System.  Video recordings of Classes, resources, and reading suggestions will be available within your course site.  Again, you will be receiving your invitation to the class site during this next week.  Your class materials are available at
Zoom
All lessons will be conducted over Zoom, so please make sure you are using the latest version (5.14.11 as of last report). All team members are expected to be on time with videos turned on, and actively engaged throughout the course. The zoom details for our regular Friday meetings are listed below.  You will be welcomed into a waiting room and then admitted in order to prevent zoombombing.
ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION
As stated in the Syllabus, 2 team members must be present for the each weekly meeting and for the bi-weekly one-on-one coaching sessions (unless you have received a variance in advance of being accepted to the cohort). Mentor are optional, but if you have elected to invite a mentor to participate, they should also participate in all sessions.  In order to be considered to have completed the cohort, attendance is mandatory, and any absences must be pre-approved by the VentureWrench team and will also be reviewed by UIC.  Plan to be early to all cohort activities. Attendance will be taken in each class.
CUSTOMER DISCOVERY INTERVIEWS

Your team will be expected to conduct 75 discovery interviews beginning as soon as you can. We recommend starting to schedule interviews as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to schedule interviews!

How do you conduct Discovery Interviews?

Before we start the cohort, it is essential that you familiarize yourself with the concept, and tools, of discovery interviews.  This page on our website (which will also be hosted in our Learning Management System) includes the list of videos produced by Steve Blank (of Stanford) for the Lean Launchpad community.  You need to watch all the videos up until the cohort dates section.

https://venturewrench.com/launch-bmc-discovery/

Once you’ve watched the videos, you are welcome to start your discovery calls and they will counted towards your commitment for this cohort.

U.S. Small Business Administration.

Funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.